New 10mm, 45 Colt Loads from Liberty Ammunition

Liberty Ammunition was showing their new 10mm and 45 Colt loads at the 2014 NASGW show. The ammo is part of the company’s Civil Defense line. The 10mm load is rated at 2,400 fps, while the 45 Colt is listed as good for 1,800 fps.

The Civil Defense line of ammunition uses a lighter-than-typical-for-the-caliber copper bullet that is nickel plated. The loads are developed to keep the pressures all within SAAMI specs yet still push velocities much higher than is normally seen with handgun rounds.

On impact, the hollow point rapidly expands, causing a large wound. The expanding portion of the bullet breaks off while the base continues to penetrate to a 12″ – 16″ depth.

I’ve heard conflicting reports about how effective their ammo is (in tests). Apparently it makes a mess for like 3″, and then does very little after that?

sianmink

It’s pretty explosive for 3-4 inches then the base keeps going for about 11-12″ in gel. I don’t know of any real-world data as far as self-defense goes, aside from a .45 headshot from the middle-east that looked like the guy had been hit with a rifle. YMMV. I’m skeptical, but I can also see where it would more than do the job.

BTW the muzzle blast is pretty epic. Calling them ‘boomy’ is like saying a M2HB is challenging to carry uphill.

Ken

Yeah, I’ve shot the .45 stuff out of a Commander sized Ruger. We’d mix in the Liberty stuff into mags of regular ball for comparison. The recoil was almost nonexistent, but there was a lot of flash and noise. For that alone, I kind of want to try some of the 10mm stuff, maybe just for watermelons.